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By General John C. Smith, Commander 

Department of ilKnois 

Grand Army of the Republic 




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^11, 



GRANT 

An address delivered at the 
23d Annual Reunion of 
the Old Soldiers' and 
Sailors' Association of Jo 
Daviess County, Turner 
Hall, Galena, August 1 5 

1905 



General John C. Smith, Commander 

Department of Illinois 

Grand Army of the Republic 



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ROGERS &. SMITH CO. 
DESIGNERS 
ENGRAVERS 
PRINTERS 
BINDERS 

CHI C AG 



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1 



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ADDRESS. 



Mr. President. Comrades. Ladies and Friends: 

As an old citizen of Galena I am pleased to meet this 
splendid audience of comrades and friends and return your 
hearty greeting. As 1 came upon this platform I was hailed 
bv Comrade Will Perry, now of Elizabeth, the first l)oy whom 
I enlisted in my company for the \\'av. and whose father also 
enrolled with nie for "Three Years." The next to oreet me 
was my old brigade conmiander, Major-General Smith I). Atkins, 
of the city of Freeport. AVhile on every hand were comrades 
of all gratles, non-comnussicnied and commissioned, from Private 
Perrv to General Atkins, rejoicing that they were gathered 
together once more before summoned to cross the pontoon 
for duty on the eternal camping ground upon the other shore. 

I would like to talk to my comrades of the early days, 
when we went a-soldiering. Of the marches. l)ivouacs and 
battles in which ^\e were, engaged dining those long four 
vears of terrible conflict, and the return home. But having 
taken up some incidents in the life of oiu* illustrious citizen and 
peerless soldier, Ulysses S. Grant. I leave all those stories to the 
comrades who are to follow me and will speak to you of our 
old commander. Every incident in the civil or military life 
of General Grant can Init be of interest to all Galenians, and 
should be repeated b}' the old and learned l:)y the young. 
When General Grant passed to the unseen world. I was in 
Springfield serving the State as Lieutenant-Governor, and had 
as private secretary an old soldier, Major Eugene A. Routhe, 
who wrote the following beautiful triliute to General Grant 

5 



upon the fly-leaf of a sera]) l)ook ami liavo it to mc, Xovcinl)('r 
25, 1885: 

"(iHAXT." 
"No one knows when a ,<ireat man is l)orn. Few, as a rule, 
re('o<j;nize his fiTeatness clurin,'^; life — but he dies — a nation 
mourns, and th(> world goes to his funeral." 

AVli(>n the guns of Fort Sumter awakened a sleeping land, 
the hero of the succeeding war had no ])lace in its dreams. 
His name was mduiown. his person was unfamiliar. Avenues 
where Notoriety dro^•e her gilded cars knew him not. His 
foot-falls had sta.rted echoes only in the hunil)le by-ways of 
life. A long line of illustrious ancestry may give title to pre- 
eminence, but this man rode no steed of pedigree to the fore- 
front of fortune. He walked solitary and alone and dust 
covered. Long after t\w drum-beat "to arms" smote upon the 
drowsy ear of Peace, no hiunan eye saw the glory of his 
future, (iod had written it in characters wdiich could only 
be read in the hnid glare of battle flame; l)ut it was His hand- 
writing. The d(>stiny which shapes the end of Man had found 
as yet no use for the prodigious possibilities of Grant's nature. 
Fame was not his ])atrimony — it was the wage he earned. 

General Grant was tudvnown at the outbreak of the Rebellion. 
except to his neighbors and a small circle of friends, yet in 
in four brief years his name and fame became known to all the 
earth and hisdeeds indcdibly impressed uj)on the ])agesof history. 
A decade following and his practical statesmanship won liiiu a 
place second onl\- to his pro\-en military abihty. of which the 
orator can never cease to souml liis i)raise or ihe historian to 
lell of his wise suggestions. While his services in th<' field 
and in the |)residential chair will for ages ilbnuine l he pages 
of history, the American people will nc\-er cease lo love him 
for the pui'itv of his honu^ life ;md the slei'ling dignity of his 
(•hara<'ter. 

Were 1 to speak lo you onlv of the military career of 
L'lysses S. Gi-ant. 1 would tell you that he held no second place 
among the soldiers of any age. not ex'en to the gi'eat Xapoh'on 
whose Italian campaign \-ictories stanled the woiiil. While 
that campaign was the wonder of the militarN' critics ot the 

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(lay and has l)een the study of soldiers since, Grant's invest- 
ment of ^^icksburo• after rnnnino- the batteries, crossing the 
Mississippi below, and marching and fighting for twenty days, 
is worthy to be ranked with it, and all which Napoleon claimed 
for his men in that campaign is justly due to General Grant's 
command. Without quartermaster or commissary su])plies, 
or base for their storage. (Jrant crossed a mile wide and deep 
river, niarch(^d two hundred and fifty miles over a rough, 
hilly and h(>avily timbered country intersected by deep and 
bridgeless rivers, fought five battles— Port Gibson, Raymond, 
Jackson, Champion's Hill and Big Black River, capturing 
eighty pieces of siege and field artillery, the Capital City of 
Jackson and the batteries at Grand Gulf. Seven thousand 
prisoners were taken, and as many more of the enemv were 
killed or woundetl. Two armies of th(> Confederates, com- 
mantled by their best generals, Josejjh E. Johnston and John 
C. Pemberton, each ecpial in numljer to the Federal forces, 
were prevented from uniting and were handsomely ^\hipped 
in detail. 

All this was accomplished in ticcnij/ dai/s. during which 
time but fi^'e days' rations were issued, and the troops had to 
forage for additional food in a sparsely settled country where 
supplies were already scarce. As this twenty-day campaign 
ended with the investment of Mcksburg, forty more days' 
investment and assault brouglit its surrender, with 32,000 
prisoners, 170 guns and 50,000 stand of small arms together 
with a large supply of anununition for the same. 

From a l)rief examination of the movements of these 
commanders, we learn that Napoleon entered upon his cam- 
paign in Italy with a veteran army and double the number of 
troo])s opposed to him; while Grant, whose forces were composed 
of volunteers, many of whom hatl never been under fire, 
crossed the .Alississippi with one-half the number of the enemy 
and he was not reinforced until after ^^icksburg was invested. 

Of this splendid campaign, the noble-hearted President 
Lincoln wrote: 
"My Dear Gkxkral:" 

"I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. 
I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost 



inestiniabl(> service you have done the couutrv. When you 
first I'eached the vicinit}' of Moksburg, I thought you should 
do what you finally did, march the troops across the neck, 
run the l)atteries with the transports, and thus go below; and 
I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew 
better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could 
succeed. When you got below and took Port Gibson, Clrand 
Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and 
join General Banks, and when you turned northward, east of 
the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make 
a personal acknowledgment that you w(>re right and I was 
wrong." 

-Much other evidence might l^e presented of the soldierly 
qualities of our commander were it necessary, ])ut I will 
content myself with a hr'ioi reference to one or two. 

We are reading daily of the war in the East, and Ix'ing 
told of the great battles of ten to fifteen days' duration by the 
largest armies the world ever saw. In fact, everything con- 
nectcil with this Japanese -Russian war is magnified out of 
all ])roportion, and more men are reported killed than wounded, 
thus reversing the record of all previous wars. It is evident 
that the waiters have never been soldiers, and very doubtful 
if they have yet heard of our Civil War. What soldier of that 
wai' or reader of its battles but knows that Cirant commanded 
more men than are in either army now engaged in Manchuria, 
and that while in person witli the Army of the Potomac, he 
was ihrecting the movements of the armies under Shei-man and 
those west of the Mississippi, more than one thousand niih's 
away? Where is the soliHei- or student but knows that out- 
old coiuiuander set the pace I'or coutinuous battle, as in the 
investnuMit of \'icksburg, and as you. uiy comrades of the 
armies of the Cumberland. Tennessef^ and ( )hio. Ic^inuvl in the 
one hiunb'ed and twenty (hiys" lighting of the Athuita cani- 
paign, from Rocky lace Kidge to .h)nesbori> ;nid l,o\'ejoy 
Station: oi' the (•ani|)aign of the Army of the I'oloniac for 
elc\-en nionths, iVoni tlie napiihm thi'ough the w ildci-ness to 
Spottsyl\-ania and Cold 1 larboi'. in final \ic1ory at .\pponiat to\? 

Hut of General (li-ant's sei-\-ices while President . and the 
claim of his fi'icnds for high iaid< as a statesman. I need not 

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<i() into details for the facts, as to nicntioii his l)riii<iin<i' order 
out of the chaos of the Civil War, his defense of Lee and treat- 
ment of the Confederate armies, and the amicable adjustment 
of the claims for damages done our shipping by the rebel 
privateer Alabama, gave evidence of those ciualitics which 
make for good in the character of a public man. 

Another piece of wise statesmanship was the President's 
treaty with Santo Domingo. 

Under date April 5, 1S71, President CIrant submitted the 
report of a special committee on the Island of Santo Domingo 
to the Senate in which he says: 

"It will be ol)served that this report more than sustains 
all that 1 have heretofore said in regard to the productiveness 
and healthfulness of the Republic of San Domingo, of the 
unanimity of the people for annexation to the United States 
and their peaceable character, etc." 

That paper alone, and his desire for annexation of the most 
fertile island in the Caril)l)ean Sea, indicates the broad scope 
of the President's mind, and looking far into the future his 
desire to lienefit our coimtry. Had that treaty been approved 
l)y the United States Senate, we should not now be in the 
position we are likely to ho ]:)laced in as a world power of 
having to become a bad debt collecting agency for adventurers 
and Eitroj)ean governments. 

As further evidence of the President's good judgment and 
far-seeing that would he for the best interest of the Nation, 
we have his firm stand on the currency question, the resumption 
of specie i^aynunit, the inviolability of the national debt, and 
his speech on our conmion schools lief ore the Society of the 
Army of the Tennessee, at Des ^loines, Iowa, in ISTO. 

In that address he said: 

"I do not l)ring into this assemblage politics, certainly 
not partisan politics, but it is fair subject for soldiers in their 
deliberations to consider what may be necessary to secure the 
prize for which they battle. In a republic like ours, in which 
the citizen is the sovereign and the official the servant, where 
no power is exercised except l)y the people, it is important 
that the sovereign — the people — should possess intelligence. 
The free school is the promoter of that intelligence wliich is 

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to preserve' us a fro(> nation. If we are to have another contest 
in the near fut\u'(> of o\n- national existence, I ]n-(MUet that the 
(hvicUng Hne will not l^e Mason and Dixon's. l)ut between 
patriotism and intelligence on the one side and superstition, 
ambition and ignorance on the other. Now. in this centennial 
year of our existence. I believe it is a good tinu^ to begin the 
work of strengthening the house commenced l)v our patriotic 
forefathers one hundred years ago at Concord and Lexington. 
Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the more 
perfect security of free thought, free speech and press, pure 
morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights 
and privileges to all men. irrespective of color, nationality or 
religion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one 
dollar of money appropriated to their support, no matter hoAV 
raised, shall be appropriated to any sectarian school. Koolve 
that neither the State nor Nation, nor both combinetl. shall 
support institutions of learning other tlian those sufficient to 
afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity 
of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian. 
pagan or atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion to 
the family altar, the chiurh and the i)rivate school supported 
entirely by private contribution. Keep tlu^ church and State 
forever separate. AVith these safeguards. 1 ])eli(>ve tlu^ l)attles 
which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have b(>en 
fought in vain." 

/Turning now lo the ])urity of cliaractei' of oui' old connnan- 
der and his home lii'e. 1 can li-uilifu]l\- say that durinu the 
residence in (lalena of (ieii(>ral ('.rant and family, their lit'e was 
that of their neighbors, unostentatious, (juiet and conunend- 
al)le. As the ( leneral was not a member of any secret society, 
and theivfore not out late at nights attending lotlge. as many 
of us were, but. leaving business in the early evening lie re- 
turned home to enjoy the societv of his wife and children, 
occasionally visiting with the neighl)ors. lie was a constant 
attendant at church, occupying a pew in the new Px'uch Street 
Methodist l<]piscop;il Church, under the pastorate of the liev. 
.lohn 11.. now iVisho]. N'incent. anil his childivn atlemleil its 
Sal>l>ath school. 'I"hi> clun-ch liad but ivcentlx" heen eivcteil 
bv ,\hii'ble iV Smith, of which linn youi' speaker was the jmiior 

II) 



member and at that time a constant attendant, hence he speaks 
of what he knew and not from hearsay. Returning to Galena 
on the chise of the war and Hving there during the presidential 
campaign of 1868, the retm-n from his tour aroimd the world 
and later, General Grant and family renewed their attendance 
at this same church, then under the pastorate of Rev. J. F. 
Yates and others, of Avhich I am reminded by Judge William 
Spensley, then an usher in the church, whose duty it was to 
seat the General and family in their pew, where they were 
noted for their marked attention to the exercises of the service. 

Of General Grant's dislike of improper stories in which 
some people thoughtlessly indulge. I have told in a i)revious 
address and I now emphasize the fact, that the General dis- 
liked slang and A'ulgarity and never was known to use profane 
language. A great respecter of the Sal^bath Day, he would 
not drive for recreation on that day, and the Hon. Robert R. 
Hitt, M. C., will tell you that when General Grant was in Paris 
he declined to witness a review of the French army l)ecause 
it was being held on Sunday.; 

While the General did not seek society, yet he made many 
friends in Galena, and among them I may name several who 
became distinguished in the war so soon to follow. 

John A. Rawlins, a young lawyer of ability, a native of 
Galena and a Douglas elector in the political campaign of 
1860, who entered the military service as captain and assistant 
adjutant-general on General Grant's staff, where he remained 
until the close of the Avar, rising to the rank of major-general and 
chief-of-staff, from which he became Secretary of War on the 
General's election to the Presidency of the United States, and 
in which office he died. 

John Fj. Smith, a jeweler and republican Treasurer of 
Jo-Daviess County, entered the military service as Colonel of 
the 45th Regiment Illinois Infantry ^'olunteers. became a 
major-general and commander of a splendid division in that 
grand old Army of the Tennessee, dying in Chicago a few 
years ago a retired officer of the Ignited States Army. 

Augustus L. Chetlain, a merchant and captain of a political 
club known as the "Wide Awakes," who recruited the first 
company of soldiers in Galena, the one Captain Ulysses S. 

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Grant acconipanied to Springfield, wiicrc it was incorpdratcd 
into t\»lon('l John McArthur's 12th Regiment IHinoi.s Infantry 
\'ohniteers, of which Captain Chetlain (the father of .Judge 
Arthur H. Chetlain of Chicago) became lieutenant-colonel, 
from which he steadily rose to the rank of major-general in 
that same Army of the Tennessee. 

Jasi)er A. xMaltby. a gunsmith and a democrat, who entered 
the military service as lieutenant-colonel of .John E. Smith's 
regiment, the 45th Illinois, became colonel on Sniith's ])ro- 
motion, and afterward a brigadier-general, dying at N'icksbiu'g 
.shortly after th(> war and while nnlitary governor of that 
city. 

F:iy S. Parker, Superintendent of Construction of the Galena 
Custom House and Post-Office and Marine Hospital; also 
T)ubu(iue. Iowa, Custom House and Post-Oihce; a Seneca Indian 
and Chief of the Six Nations of Northern New ^'ork; grand 
nephew of the famous Indian warrior and orator of revolution- 
ary times. Chief Parker entennl the service with rank of captain 
as an engineer officer on the staff of General .John K. Smith, was 
transferred to staff of General Grant at the siege of N'icksburg. 
became liis military secretary and rose to the rank of brigadier- 
general, was commissioner of Indian affairs during President 
Grant's first term. Died at Fairfield, Connecticut. August 80, 
ISO.T, and laid to rest in those happ\- hunting grounds with 
Indian ceremonies. 

William R. Rowley, ivpul)lican Clerk of the Ciiruit Court 
of ,h)-l)aviess County, entere(l the servic(> iis a lieutenant in 
the 4.")tli Keginient Illinois Infantry NOlunteers. was trans- 
ferred to (lenerid Gi'ant's staff at Fort Donelsoii. Ix'came his 
pi-o\()st marshal and prix'ate secretai->- and I'osc to tlie I'ank 
of hrigadier-geiiei'al. (ieneral Howley ditMl in (*liicago a 
few years ago and his remains, with those of ( icncrals .hilui !•>. 
Smith and Jasper \. .Maltby, repose in oui' beautiful Greenwood 
Cemetery, ( ialen:'. 

There were others who bore a soldier's part in that great 
war with wlioni Captain Grant became ac(ptainte(l in ( laleiia. 
but I have iiaineil enough to indicate tlie chai-aclei- ol hi.- 
fi-ieii(l> ami associates in thi> cil)' at the conunencenn'iit ot 
1 he war for t he I iiion. 

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•That ho liked others to enjoy themselves and took pleasure 
in their doinu' so was evidencetl in the interest he took in the 
debates of the local elul) and the drills of the "Wide Awakes," 
a republican organization commanded by General Chetlain 
which he frequently assisted in drilling. While I have noticed 
the General's interest in other people's children, he loved his 
own and was pleased to see all enjoy themselves, even assisting 
them in doing so. I remember the spring of 1S60 was wet. the 
river overflowing its l)anks and flooding Main Street. When 
going u}) town I had to pass the Grant store, in front of which 
several boys were engaged in sailing boats, and with them I saw 
Captain Grant whittling shingles, putting in a stick or two to 
make sloop or schooner, helping dress them fore and aft, rig 
with paper sails, and there was no one of the party seemingly 
enjoying himself more than our future president. 

Coming so soon into the lime light of public life, it was 
noticed by the friends of General Cirant that there was no change 
from the simplicity and ])urity of lif<' led by himself or family 
while in Galena, and that his interest in the church and Christi- 
anity increased with his years and experience. So great was 
that interest in all that makes for good, that he personally 
suggested and tirged the elevation of the Rev. John R. Newman 
to the bishopric, to whom the great privilege was afterwards 
accorded of administering to General Grant the right of bap- 
tism on Mi. McGregor, officiating at the tomb in Riverside 
Park, New York City, and on whose authority it is stated that 
General Grant expressed the hope that he might yet live that 
he could more fully exemplify in his life the pure doctrines 
of Christianity. 

As at Paris, so even on Mt. McGregor, our old commander 
would not drive out on Sunday though it was thought by his 
physicians that it might benefit him.. 

In speaking on the domestic side of Grant's character, 
we must not overlook the mother's influence which moulds 
for so much that is good in the child. In the life of General 
Washington, also Abraham Lincoln, we read that to the mother's 
care and instruction was due their love of the good and the true. 
So it may be said of General Grant, whose sturdy honesty and 
fixedness of pm-pose were characteristic of his father, but the 

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domestic virtues were those of the mother, who came of the 
Avell-kiiown Simpson famil\" fi'om my old home in .Montgomery 
County, Pennsylvania. 

Followino- the mother's care and instruction, came the 
love and advic(> of an affectionate and domestic wife as Mrs. 
Grant was known to her friends, and so to the loving care and 
wise counsel of mother and wife was our hero indebted for so 
much which was good and enn()l)ling in his own life and char- 
acter. 

That General Grant was not afraid to die had been proven 
upon the many battle-fiekls of his country. l)ut the most sul)- 
lime evidence of that fact is found in what he said to a friend 
as he was being removed to Mt. McGregor. 

"1 have be(Mi twice witliin a lialf minute of death. I real- 
ized it fully and my life was only preserved l)y the skill and 
attentions of my physicians. 1 have told them the next time 
to let me go." 

Siich was General Grant's known lo^■e of wife and children 
that our own Eugene Field, knowing the sufferer's anxiety to 
see his loved daughter before being called hence, embodied 
it in the following sweet verse: 

"GRANT" 

His listening soul hears no echo of battle, 

No paean of triumph nor welcome of fame; 
But down througih the years comes a little one's prattle. 

And softly he nuirniurs her idolized name. 
And it seems as if now at his heart she were clinging. 

As she clung in those dear distant years to his knee; 
He sees her fair face and he hears her sweet singing — 

.\iui Nellie is coming from over the sea. 
While patriot hope stays the fullness of sorrow, 

While our eyes are hedimmed and our voices are low. 
He dreams of the daughter who comes with the morrow 

Like an angel come back from the dear long ago. 
Ah! What l(i iiim now is a nation's emotion — 

,\nd wliat for our love or our grief caret h he? 
A swift-speeding ship is a-sail on the ocean 

.\nd Nellie is coming from over the sea. 

The end was soon to come when in the (|uiet solitude of 
.\lt. Met Iregor the white \\iMge(l angel of eternal life would open 

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the gates to immortality and the ))iu-e spirit of our old com- 
mander enter into eternal life. 

A few words more and I am done. 

During the last days of the General's life, ho was unal)le 
to speak and his wants were made known in writing, a jxid and 
l^encil being provided for that [nn-pose. 

<Jur commander's thoughts were then of you, my com- 
rades, our country and his loving family, as was made known 
by the daily bulletins sent out from that mountain cottage. 
There, but a few hours before his death, with nurse, physicians 
and all his family, for "Xellie had come from over the sea/' 
gathered by his bcMlside, the General motioned for a light, 
for his pail and pencil, when with great difficulty he wrote a 
note which was passed to his son Colonel Fred, who folded 
and gave it to his mother. That note was a message of love 
to the dear wife from A\hom he was so soon to be separated. 
Xo other eye ever saw that last and most precious message 
from the dying husl^and to loved wife. It was his last upon 
earth, and God grant that it was his first in heaven. 



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